Time Like Now
by what a feeling
Summary: It's not just pink, it's Baker-Miller pink. Senior year means high school's coming to an end, and for Piper, the change starts with Annabeth's hair. Percabeth High School AU Epilogue (Punk!Percy and Girly!Annabeth)
**DISCLAIMER: I do not own PJO/HoO or anything you may recognize.**

 **A/N: This is for my best friend ever, Minnie, who means the world to me, and currently lives in my hometown, which is over eight thousand kilometers away from my uni. I miss her so, so much, and SHOUT OUT TO YOU BC I LOVE YOU BB xo**

Piper gawks at her best friend, who's only looking at her with brows raised.

"What are you staring at?" Annabeth demands, looking more bored than anything else. Piper only stares open mouthed at her. She holds out her hand to touch the blonde's hair, trying to mke sure it's real, and is honestly surprised that it is.

"You got your hair _dyed_?"

"Honestly, Pipes, it's just the tips. I don't see what the big deal is." Annabeth shrugs. The _entire school_ is staring at her- Nothing different about that, though, Piper thinks- But she doesn't let it affect her. How Annabeth handles being all the attention is beyond her.

"Pink?"

"I like to think of it as French Rose." Annabeth waves off, but her expression is thoughtful. "Maybe a Baker-Miller pink, really?"

"Annabeth!" Piper's best friend rolls her large eyes, outlined with just the right amount eyeliner that's winged to perfection.

"You're making a big deal of nothing, now let's _go_. We've got English." She pulls her waves into a ponytail at the top of her head. It's messy, with her bangs still covering her eyes and bumps on her head, but she still looks like she's stepped out of a fashion magazine. Piper peels herself off her locker and falls in step with the blonde. "Stop staring." She says, without sparing Piper a glance.

"You're literally the most annoying human being to ever exist." Piper states, and Annabet flashes her a grin, eyes twinkling. Piper lets out a sigh. "Okay, so why'd you get it done?"

"My dad didn't notice." Annabeth shrugs, and Piper would have bought it back when they were nine years old, but she knew her too well to think she still cared about getting her father's attention. Unlike herself, Annabeth had long given up on trying to impress her father, which Piper thought was both, sad and smart.

"Now tell me the truth." Piper demands flatly, and she can see Annabeth smirk as they enter the classroom.

"No reason. Wanted a change." She brushes off. They take their seats somewhere in the middle of class. Mr. Blofis is already at his table, his glasses on and reading through a bunch of papers.

"I want you guys to spend this hour reading the chapter while I go around distributing your papers." He announces once the class settles down, and Piper beams triumphantly at Annabeth- To them (and probably the rest of the class), it's time off to talk, which is exactly what she needs.

"What are you playing at?" She wonders out loud, and Annabeth snaps. She grins, because she can get almost anything out of her friend by repeating her question the right number of times. Annabeth leans in closer to her, her voice dropping to a whisper.

"Don't turn, and don't make it obvious or I will hurt you." She pauses, as if debating whether or not to go on, and Piper looks up with a big, innocent grin, hoping to sway her. "Percy Jackson." Her voice is so low, Piper isn't even sure she heard her. She blinks at her for a moment, and her head automatically snaps towards the boy at the end of the class.

He's sunken into his seat with a scowl that she thinks is permanently etched into his features. He's wearing jeans tighter than Piper's with rips at the knees, showing her a pair of tan knees. She can see the tattoos all over his left arm, even though his right one seems empty from under the sleeve of his black t-shirt with a text that she can't read from the distance printed across it. There's a leather jacket hanging off the back of his seat, and he's got his head turned, talking to a pretty redhead in the seat beside him, giving Piper a full view of his undercut. The tips of his hair is dyed a blood red, and she can't help but frown before turning back to Annabeth.

"Him?" She asks, a little unsure, and Annabeth's face turns red, even with her tan. She bites her lip, but can't hide her smile.

"He's attractive." She defends weakly, averting her eyes, and Piper finds herself smiling a little. She wants to laugh, because of all the people she could have had, she picked him? Really?

"He isn't ugly." Piper allows, and Annabeth lets out a groan before collapsing on her desk in a very uncharacteristic fashion. She's saying something, but her words are completely muffled by the fact that her arms are around her face, so Piper leans in closer to her best friend.

"-A girl like me." She's saying.

"Eh?" She raises her head, bangs askew.

"He's never going to notice me." She whines. "You think if maybe I shave a part of my hair off? What's that called, again?" Piper bursts into a loud laugh, causing Mr. Blofis to look up and flash them a pointed look. She sends him an apologetic smile before turning back to her friend.

"You want to get an undercut?"

"Think it's too desperate?"

"I'd like to see you match your heels to your dress to your hair to your new _edgy look_." Piper laughs, at the same time wondering how she's managed to pull off pink hair to a yellow dress. Annabeth looks genuinely concerned about it, giving Piper a good idea of how serious she's being about Percy Jackson. Just thinking it makes Piper want to laugh again, but she sobers down for her. "Annabeth, if he can't see you for who you are,-"

"Yeah, yeah. He doesn't deserve me, I've heard that before." Annabeth scowls and in that moment Piper thinks she and Percy could make the greatest babies with the most negative scowls. "He probably doesn't even know my name, and-"

Piper snorts. "If he doesn't know your name, he doesn't attend Sunnybrooke High."

She's absolutely right, of course- There's not a single student- Or teacher, for that matter- who doesn't know (and love) Annabeth Chase, which makes it a lot easier for Piper to get away with stealing from people. If she ever did get caught, she'd say 'You know, Annabeth-' and she didn't even have to finish the sentence before the poor victim would let her have it.

Percy Jackson could be no exception, of that Piper was sure.

"He's probably dating that girl, anyway." Annabeth jerks her head towards him and the redhead discretely. "Rachel Elizabeth Dare. She's in my art class, and gods, Pipes, you should see her sketches. They're beautiful."

"I don't really care about her sketches." Piper shrugs. "I do care, however, about your mental health. Percy Jackson, really?"

"Ssh! Someone might hear." Annabeth glares. "And don't say that. I've heard him sing and play the guitar, and my ovaries can't handle it, really. I just want to run my fingers through his hair and-"

"Again, I don't care." Piper cuts her off. "I think you're crazy," Annabeth looks a little offended, so she puts her hands up. "But I'll support you." She sighs.

oOo

"Can we have Percy Jackson and Leo Valdez report to the principal's office, please?"

The whole class looks up at the blaring speakers. Piper can't help but send Annabeth a smirk from across the table, but her friend pointedly looks down at her flasks. She turns to Travis, her chemistry partner, and speaks to him, and it's obvious she's trying to ignore Piper, who sighs and looks up at Jason.

He's doing all the work, as was decided by them at the beginning of the year when they were assigned to be partners- Leaving Piper to chemicals is probably not a good idea, anyway.

"Bet it's the graffiti." Jason grins, and Piper raises her brows curiously. "Oh, man, if they haven't scrubbed it clean by the time we're out, you should check out the wall below Principal Foster's window." He lets out a laugh. Piper is about to respond, but the speakers crackle to life again.

"Annabeth Chase, please report to the principal's office."

Piper turns around to raise her brows at Annabeth, who seems just as surprised. She shrugs at Piper, eyes wide and excuses herself without another word, leaving Piper to wonder what was happening. Even Jason is frowning.

"Is she in trouble?" He asks, and there's a soft murmur throughout class. Travis looks entirely lost without Annabeth's help, so he moves over to work with Piper and Jason. Jason finishes up with the experiment, and bends over to get to his notes that the other two of them decide to copy off of once he's done. They lean against the table beside Jason.

"Wonder what's taking her so long." Travis says absently, playing with the slight stubble on his chin.

"Maybe she's getting some kind of appreciation?" Jason asks, now working out some math equation on his sheet. "It's senior year. Maybe she just got a huge acceptance?"

"I don't know. They didn't make a big deal of her Princeton scholarship." Piper points out, and Jason straightens up.

"She got into Princeton? Sweet! That's where I'm headed." Piper rolls her eyes, because of course he is. Much like Annabeth, Jason thrived on being the best there is. There was so many things they had in common- They were both incredibly smart, were in at least two of the school's teams, and extremely driven. They had this aura that kind of made everyone around them (Piper included) want to work harder, as if they were _born_ to influence and lead people. Jason Grace, Piper thinks, is very likely the answer to all the times she's complained about how she wished she was lesbian, or there was a male Annabeth for her.

It's not a crush, she swears. They're just friends- Acquaintances, even; He was pretty close to Annabet, so they were just people with a mutual friend, really. She just thinks that if she were dating him, he'd make a great boyfriend. Not that she'd go out of her way to try to see what that would be like.

She'd even go far enough to say she'd have rather Annabeth like Jason than _Percy Jackson_.

"Congratulations, man!" Travis grins, giving him a fist bump, and Piper smiles awkwardly at him. "I'm hoping this basketball season will get me a scholarship at Ohio State." He continues, and Piper and Jason nod, before they turn to her expectantly.

Piper considers it. Unlike her best friend, she'd never had any plans for the future. Sure, she's applied to a couple of colleges on Annabeth's insistence, and her SAT scores aren't too bad, but she has absolutely no clue where she's going from here. She isn't even sure if she wants to go to college at all. She shrugs.

"I'll go to Gainesville, if at all." She finally shrugs, only because she doesn't want to admit how unprepared she is. "It'll be nice to be by the beach." She hums, trying to ignore the weird jitters creeping up her spine.

If she's being really honest with herself, she hasn't thought about college simply because she doesn't want to. Her life's going to be different, it's her last year at high school. There's people here she knows, she's comfortable with, and she isn't sure she wants the change. This is her life- It's been for the last twelve years, and college is going to be a whole new scene.

 _Annabeth isn't going to be there_.

She can't imagine that. The girls had been best friends since they met when they were three years old, and going to school without her seems impossible. She can't imagine a day without Annabeth- She did everything with her. They'd meet up after Annabeth's cheer practice everyday, which wasn't hard seeing that they lived across the street from each other. They'd do their own homework or take a nap or scroll through their Instagram in silence, really, but the truth is, Annabeth's going to college next year, whether Piper's ready or not, and the thought seems almost unbearable to her.

The worst part is how easily everyone else seems to have accepted this. People are talking about majors and minors and college and jobs and sometimes it's all too much for Piper. Her problems revolve around getting her father to notice her, already, and the occasional boy. Sometimes she'd worry about her C's and D's, but even those she'd mostly stopped worrying about.

"Yeah, the beach sounds nice." She repeats softly.

oOo

"What'd Foster say?" She sees Annabeth walking towards her in the hallway, and she wastes no time in racing up to her.

"Nothing." Her voice is a lot higher than normal (which is saying something), and Piper frowns.

"Honestly?" She's tired of having to pry it out of her best friend.

"Yeah, no, Foster just wanted some signatures for my race this weekend."

"Why do you look so pale, then?"

"I spoke to him." Her voice is feathery and her eyes are glazed. "He knew my name." She smiles almost giddily at Piper, who rolls her eyes.

"Get a grip, Chase. Of course he knew your name."

"He said he liked my hair." She grins smugly, and Piper shoves her lightly. They're on their way to lunch with the rest of their friends. "And I was such a mess around him. It's embarrassing." She covers her face with her hands.

"You're a mess all the time." Piper tells her. Annabeth Chase might be the Queen of high school, but as her best friend, Piper believes that it's her duty to remind her of this. She gets a scowl in response. "What'd you do?" She laughs as they get into the lunch line, and Annabeth moans, face tingeing pink.

"He nodded at me when I got in, and I'm sure I blushed." She starts off. "And I took the seat beside him, and he leaned in, like, really close and said- no, wait, I'll quote him. He said 'New hair, Chase?'" She deepens her voice in an attempt to sound more masculine, failing miserably. "And I didn't breathe or answer and I kind of stared at him until he looked at me like I was weird, so I tried to answer before it was too late and I choked and oh god it was mortifying." She peeks at Piper through her fingers, and Piper wants to comfort her, because she looks so embarrassed, but she ends up bursting into laughter when she opens her mouth, earning a few looks from the others in the line.

"You're such a weirdo. Did you thank him?"

"No. I just-I panicked."

"Well." Piper says, looking over her shoulder with a smirk. "He's headed for the line. Maybe you can fix that." Annabeth's eyes widen just as Percy and Grover Underwood take their place behind them.

 _He's behind you_ , Piper tries to tell her with her eyes. If they hadn't been best friends for thirteen years, she'd have worried that Annabeth didn't understand, but she drops her hands from her face and she looks absolutely horrified, which Piper takes as a sign that her message has been received. She smirks, trying to hold in her laughter. Percy is at least half a head taller than her, and he's currently looking down at the back of her head with a somewhat amused expression.

Piper knows the right thing to do is to turn back around to face the line, but she can sense the entertainment that's sure to unfold when Percy opens his mouth, so she continues to walk backwards, grinning at Annabeth who's mouthing senseless words to her in horror.

"Nice to see you again, Annabeth." Percy says, and Annabeth whirls around on her heel, back to Piper. She can't see her best friend's expression, but she imagines it's somewhat comical.

"Uh-yeah, hi. Percy." She adds awkwardly, and Piper wants to hit her in the face for being so terrible at this. She peers over Annabeth's shoulder at the two boys.

"Hey. Piper." She butts in, giving Annabeth a hard shove before giving them both a wave.

"Grover. And this is Percy." The other boy says shyly. "I don't know if you know, we're in Gr-"

"Greek together, yeah, I know you two. I have English with you, don't I?" She nods at Percy, who's still looking down at Annabeth, smile playing on his lips, and up close, yes. Piper can see how good looking he is, with a bar through his dark brow and bright eyes the color of grass.

"Maybe." He says, and he looks like he's going to lean down and kiss Annabeth. His scowl is gone, and his eyes are soft, and Piper wants to scream because it's _so obvious_ he likes her best friend. "Are you going to be running this weekend, Chase?" He asks her, tilting his head, giving Piper a great view of his sharp jawline and pronounced Adam's apple.

Annabeth, thankfully, seems to have found her voice (and brains) somewhere along the way. She looks a lot calmer and less like a deer in headlights when she answers with a confident smile.

"Yes, I am." She tells him, wringing her hands like she does when she's nervous.

"I'll see you then." He tells her casually.

"Are you-?"

"I'll be there to see my number one girl kick ass." His grin is so wicked it nearly makes Piper weak at the knees. She doesn't want to think of the effect it had on Annabeth. She stares at him until he nods to the line. "It's your turn to get your lunch. Don't want our princess skipping the most important meal of the day, do we?"

"That's breakfast." Annabeth says lamely, and Piper is ready to slap her best friend so hard, just for that. She rolls her eyes and pulls Annabeth none too gently to face the lunch lady, who glares at them.

"Took you long enough." She scowls.  
Annabeth doesn't speak for the rest of lunch.

oOo

"I kind of figured he wouldn't show." Annabeth says glumly. The two of them are sitting on the grass near the race track. While there are still a couple of categories left, Annabeth's races are done, and wow, did she kick ass. She'd managed to bag two golds and a silver, and that was just today. Her room is filled with a bunch of trophies and medals, and Piper's lost count. "Dyeing my hair isn't going to get anyone to like me. Should've known better." She plucks at the grass.

"He's just a jerk." Piper says softly, not believing a word of it. There's _no way_ Percy wasn't here, and she's sure of it. She saw the way he looked at Annabeth- Like she's his sun and moon. There's absolutely no chance he stood her up.

"I guess. I just thought he was different. He's the kind of guy who doesn't care, you know? And I just wanted to be the one thing he did care about- I have to stop hoping for this movie romance in my life." Annabeth sighs. "I just. I actually did like him. Or at least the guy I'd seen jamming out to Queen in the music room when he thought nobody was watching." She turns to Piper. "He had that _passion_ , Pipes. The kind that reminds you of a blazing flame that can't be subdued."

In her entire life, Annabeth had ever liked two boys- Both for something so out of the ordinary. She'd never been into looks, or reputation, or even smarts. She'd always told Piper there was nothing more attractive than _confidence_ and _passion_. She'd crushed on Calvin Jones, a grade A jerk three years above their year, simply because of the way he'd walk with his head held high. They'd dated briefly until they decided to stay friends. How she remains to be friends with that creep is beyond Piper, though.

"You waiting for someone?" A low voice comes from behind them.

"You came?" Annabeth's voice is small.

"I watched my number one girl kick ass." He _smiles_ , and Piper can't believe it's the same scowling face she sees in class. She feels painfully awkward, like the third wheel, and gets to her feet just as Percy plops down next to Annabeth.

"I've got to, uh." She says, pointing vaguely behind her. She doesn't wait for their response before bolting from the spot.

oOo

"I'm kind of scared." Piper says softly. Annabeth looks up from her homework at her desk.

"About what?"

"The future." Her voice is small, and Annabeth frowns. She closes her book and crawls onto the bed with Piper.

"What about it?" Piper looks at her best friend. If there was anyone in the world she could talk to about this, it's definitely Annabeth, she decides.

"I don't know." She sighs. "That's what I'm afraid of. I don't know anything- What I want to do, where I want to go. What do I do?" Annabeth doesn't respond, instead looks thoughtful.

"You don't do anything." She finally says. Piper tilts her head.

"What?"

"Look, Pipes. We're different people. I plan. You wing it. It's how we've always been. I plan because that's how I deal with stress." She reaches over to the bookshelf over her bed, and grabs what Piper recognizes as her organizer. She flips through it, opening up a page with her neat handwriting printed across it. It's her plans for the future- Structural engineering at Standford after which there's Architecture at MIT. There's a bunch of architectural firm names scrawled under it. "This is my plan for today. Tomorrow, that might change. I might decide I want to be a call girl, and when I do, I'll plan the next ten years of that life. I don't have a firm plan, either." She admits, putting away the organizer. "Not knowing is perfectly fine. It's healthy, even."

Piper lets that sink in.

"I don't want high school to end. I don't want you to move so far away."

"Pipes." Annabeth looks sadly at her. "We have a month of school left. It's happening." She says gently. "The world isn't waiting for you. If you want to take over, there's no time like now."

Piper stays silent.

"There's no other option."

oOo

The entire school's abuzz again, and it's because Annabeth Chase is going to prom with the weird punk kid, Percy Jackson.

(They're just friends, though.)

Piper wants to call bullshit, but she doesn't want to ruin their relationship (balancing stupidly between friendship and something more because they're both too dumb to realize how much the other likes them) so she keeps her mouth shut. Jason asked her over chemistry the other day, and she was only too happy to say yes, of course.

Her heels are killing her and she wonders how Annabeth walks in these everyday as she stomps around the gym, searching for her best friend. Jason's not too far behind her, as is most of their classmates. She'd asked almost everyone she met if they'd seen Annabeth Chase, and they'd all been only too happy to help her in her search.  
She opened the doors to the swimming pool to see Percy and Annabeth sat at the edge, their legs dangling into the pool. Their voices echo through the walls, and most of their friends pile over each other to try to catch the words.

"What I'm trying to say, is" Percy's saying. He sounds nervous, which is so different from the usual, cocky Percy Jackson she'd come to know and (grudgingly) love. "You're special, and you hold a special place in my heart, and-" he gives up at this point, and Piper sees him cup Annabeth's face and lean forward and kiss her. It's short lived, of course, because Clarisse bursts through the doors, causing the rest of them to stumble in.

"About goddamn time." She announces, and, as if rehearsed, she, along with the Stoll brothers push the two of them into the pool. They resurface, laughing, Annabeth's dress floating up around her. Piper struggles to the front.

"Took you long enough, weirdos. Now, get out." She holds out her hand, only for Percy to pull her in with a laugh. Soon enough, their entire circle of friends are in the pool in their dresses and tuxedos, laughing and splashing at each other.

Piper sees Percy press a kiss on Annabeth's lips in the corner, and Leo jump onto Hazel's back, and Connor dunk Beckendorf underwater, and she can feel the tears form in her eyes. It's at that moment that she knows she's ready. She's going to move on, bravely into the future, because what she has here is something she can always return to. Something permanent- Friends she's going to have for life. She realizes then that with them by her side, she can take on the world, any time, any day.

oOo

Twelve years of dating later, they decide to have a poolside wedding, which is the greatest and dumbest idea Piper's ever heard. She's maid of honor because _of course she is_ , and the wedding is small and fun and the bride is beautiful and it's what dreams are made of.

All her friends from school attend, and it's a familiar sight to have them all goofing about in a large pool, some with their partners and kids, and she feels content. These aren't the people she left behind all those years ago- These are the people she's held onto.

She feels someone's arm snake around her waist, and turns to find the bride herself, looking like the model she is, in her blue and silver bikini.

"What are you thinking about?" Annabeth asks, and Piper grins.

"About how you went to college to do engineering and came out with one in fashion designing."

"Very funny." Annabeth laughs. "I love you, Pipes. Thanks for everything." She grins.

"Thank me again and I'll have to stop speaking to you."

Things turned out better than great, really.

Piper decided to go to Florida, after all, and dropped out of college in her junior year to take up professional surfing, a decision she'd never be able to regret. Annabeth, who had started modeling in her freshman year at college, fell in love, and decided to take it up as a career, but because she was Annabeth, which is why the supermodel refused to leave Yale without a backup plan, which is why she'd majored in fashion design. Percy's 'passion', too seemed to be paying off- He'd gotten signed onto a huge record label a couple of years ago and his career has only skyrocketed. Jason, who Piper had dated for a while before college, was now a lawyer, proving that some plans are meant to be followed through.

The three of them were her best friends, and she doesn't know where she'd be without them, but she doesn't dwell on the what ifs anymore. She doesn't worry about the future and doesn't fret about the past because this is her life.

And, like a very wise cheerleader had once told her,

There's no time like now.


End file.
